KL Rahul-led Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) will battle it out with Eoin Morgan's Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Match 46 of the ongoing 13th season of the Indian Premier League (IPL) at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Monday.
The second tie between KXIP and KKR of the season is a crucial one as the two teams aim for a berth in the playoffs of this year's cash-rich league.
Knight Riders and Kings XI are occupying fourth and fifth spot, respectively in the IPL 2020 standings with six and five victories from 11 matches they have played so far.
Both the sides will head into the all-important clash on the back of impressive wins in their respective previous matches.
Knight Riders registered a compehensive 59-run triumph over Shreyas Iyer-led Delhi Capitals, while Arshdeep Singh and Chris Jordan staged a late fightback for the Punjab franchise with three wickets each to guide their side to narrow 12-run win over the Sunrisers Hyderabad.
In the previous encounter between the two teams this season, KKR edged out KXIP by two runs in the last-ball thriller while defending a total of 164 runs.
KKR will look to register yet another win over KXIP, KL Rahul-led team will be keen to rebound strongly and settle the scores with Knight Riders.
Talking about the head-to-head record between the two teams, KKR hold a big edge over KXIP going into the clash. The two sides have met each other in a total of 26 matches so far in the IPL, with KKR emerging victorious on 18 occasions.
In fact, KKR have sealed wins in four out of the previous five meetings against Kings XI Punjab.
As far as the two teams' record at this venue is concerned, KKR have won just one out of three games at Sharjah, while KXIP have clinched victories in three out of four matches here.
Meanwhile, some of the players of the two sides will also look to achieve their individual milestones.
Rahul Tripathi and Nitish Rana require 60 runs and 87 runs, respectively to complete 1,000 IPL runs.
While KXIP batsman Chris Gayle is just 16 runs shy of reaching 1,000 IPL runs, skipper KL Rahul needs 65 runs to complete 2,000 runs in the tournament as wicketkeeper.
When to watch?
The match between KKR and KXIP will kickstart at 7.30 p.m IST in the absence of fans amid COVID-19 pandemic.
Where to watch?
The match will be telecast on Star Sports Network, while the live streaming of the tie will also be available on Star’s streaming application Hotstar.
KKR vs KXIP, Dream11 Team
Wicketkeeper: KL Rahul (captain)
Batsmen: Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Rahul Tripathi, Nitish Rana
All-rounders: Sunil Narine, Glenn Maxwell
Bowlers: Murugan Ashwin, Varun Chakravarthy,Mohammed Shami
Probable XIs:
Kolkata Knight Riders Probable XI: L Rahul (C/WK), Mayank Agarwal, Chris Gayle, Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell, Deepak Hooda, Chris Jordan/James Neesham, Ravi Bishnoi, Murugan Ashwin, Mohammed Shami and Arshdeep Singh.
Kings XI Punjab Probable XI: Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Eoin Morgan (c), Dinesh Karthik (wk), Sunil Narine, Pat Cummins, Lockie Ferguson, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Varun Chakravarthy
SQUADS:
Kolkata Knight Riders: Eoin Morgan (c), Shubman Gill, Nitish Rana, Rahul Tripathi, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Andre Russell, Kuldeep Yadav, Lockie Ferguson, Pat Cummins, Varun Chakravarthy, Sunil Narine, Tom Banton, Siddhesh Lad, Kamlesh Nagarkoti, Prasidh Krishna, Sandeep Warrior, Shivam Mavi, Rinku Singh, Chris Green, M Siddharth and Nikhil Naik.
Kings XI Punjab: KL Rahul (C), Harpreet Brar, Ishan Porel, Mandeep Singh, James Neesham, Tajinder Singh, Chris Jordan, Karun Nair, Deepak Hooda, Ravi Bishnoi, Arshdeep Singh, Glenn Maxwell, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Sarfaraz Khan, Sheldon Cottrell, Mayank Agarwal, Mohammed Shami, Darshan Nalkande, Nicholas Pooran, Chris Gayle, Murugan Ashwin, Jagadeesha Suchith, Krishnappa Gowtham, Hardus Viljoen, Simran Singh.
